


All Fixed (4,380 Hours)

by shelovestoship



Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Gen, I can apparently only write fluff, Magic visa? Nope, angsty, it was going to be super angsty but I couldn't do that so..., just a little one-shot, kinda sort of happy ending?, okay it's no longer angst, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24094735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelovestoship/pseuds/shelovestoship
Summary: Robin doesn't come through at the end of 2x20. Higgins is forced to go back to London.A little bit of the angst that was promised but never delivered.
Relationships: Juliet Higgins & Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV, Juliet Higgins/Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV
Comments: 39
Kudos: 178





	1. Chapter 1

“There is no wiffi down here, but you got a cable you can put in your computer if you want the internet,” said Mrs. Bates, Juliet’s possible new landlady, as she opened the door to the basement bedroom she was renting out.

“Three months deposit up front, I don’t want any noise or overnight guests,” she continued. “It’s a bit sparse but you can do whatever you want with it.”

Juliet thought spars was maybe overstating it. The small room held a single bed, an IKEA bedside table, a dresser and a table with a small fridge on top of it, and a folding chair. There was a narrow window almost at the ceiling, letting in a few stray rays of afternoon light.

“Loo is at the top of the stairs, you share it with the other lass. The kitchen and living area is off-limits until five then you can use it until eight.” Mrs. Bates shuffled back towards the door to make it easier for Juliet to inspect the small space. “No drinking, here or upstairs. No pets. It gets a bit damp down here but nothing to be done about that.”

She nodded. She could feel the chill in the air and it made goosebumps run along her arms. She sure wasn’t in Hawaii anymore. 

Not that she needed to be reminded. She couldn’t stop remembering, everything about London, _home,_ was almost alien. Worst of all there was the fact that Magn- all her friends, her family, were on the other side of the world.

“What you say lass?” 

About to tell Mrs. Bates it wouldn’t suit, she turned and noticed a calendar on the wall. It was of a beautiful sunset over Hanauma Bay. 

Juliet Higgins didn’t believe in signs. Yet that one familiar thing made her feel so overwhelmed, sad and lost, she decided it didn’t even matter if this place was terrible. That little piece of her real home, made her want to stay.

“I’ll take it,” Juliet said, even though she knew she shouldn’t. This was worse than how she’d lived even when undercover as a poor wannabe journalist. 

“All right. I’ll check your references and as long as you check out and pay your rent on time I don’t think we’ll have a problem,” Mrs. Bate said. 

“Can I take my bags down now?” she asked. She’d brought them because she’d only booked one night at the hotel.

Mrs. Bates gave her a long look. “What’s a posh girl like you doing renting a place like this anyhows? You in trouble? Cause I want no trouble.”

“I’m just in London temporarily so I just need something simple,” she said and tried to remember how to smile. “No trouble.“

“Well, alright then. I guess you can move in today,” Mrs. Bates grudgingly agreed.

“Wonderful,” she said, taking a step over to touch the Hawaii calendar. “Can I use this?”

“Well, I suppose, ain't mine so must have been the last girl’s,” the woman said with a shrug then left the room. 

Digging out a pen from her handbag she crossed out the previous day and then after considering, today too.

Only 5 months and 26 days left of the 6 months.

6 months.

That was 24 weeks. 168 days.

4,380 hours

Trying not to dwell on it things she couldn’t change she went up and got her two suitcases and brought them down into the small room. They took up almost half the free floor space.

She probably should telephone of her Uni friends. Susie or Clara. Susie lived in the suburbs with her husband and two children. She probably had a guest room. Juliet could stay with her a few days while she searched for a better place.

Except...she’d already realized it didn’t matter where she was staying. That even a penthouse in central London wouldn’t make England home again. 

Nothing could. Maybe not even Magnum coming here. Magnum and the rest of them, _of course._

But it was only for the next six months. She’d been undercover for six months once. She could do this.

She could.

She unpacked messily, very unlike her, but she needed to find a sweater because of the cold of the room. Funny, only three days ago she’d been annoyed because the AC in her bedroom had been on the fritz.

A photo in a frame fell out as she hastily got the warmest thing she could find out. The glass cracked but didn’t shatter. She plucked it off the floor.

It was a picture of her and Magnum at La Marianna. Rick had snapped it while neither one of them were looking. They were both smiling at something. Not a cheesy for the camera smile but actual genuine smiles. It was, maybe, her favorite photo.

There was a crack right in the middle, between them. Fitting, as it felt a little like something had cracked inside of her when she said goodbye to him.

She should have hugged him goodbye. She hadn’t. But he hadn’t hugged her either.

It was like if she had, she wouldn’t just have cracked, she’d have broken. And it would have changed nothing because there was no way for her to stay.

Turning the frame over she got the picture out and the glass fell and shattered. She ignored it and put the photo back without the glass. 

All fixed. 

Except not really.

She wondered if she could be fixed. Not that she needed to be fixed.

I’m fine, she told herself, just like Magnum had said _I'll be fine._

_All fixed._

_(Except not really.)_

She put the _fixed_ frame on the dresser then picked the glass up, managing not to cut herself, then went digging for the rest of her photos. 

It was somewhat old fashioned she supposed, everything was digital these days, but she’d been a spy for so long, unable to have pictures of her loved ones around, she now couldn’t help but to sometimes frame her favorites. 

She pulled out the ones she'd packed: she had one of TC’s birthday where the whole Ohana gang were squeezed in tight for the picture. One of Magnum, Kumu and her. Another one of only TC, Rick and Magnum. One of her parents. 

There was one photo without a frame. She’d printed it a long time ago; Magnum in his white Navy uniform. She’d gotten it online and most certainly never told him. She’d had it **in** the drawer of her bedside table back at Robin’s Nest - the same table where she kept Richard’s framed picture.

When she’d been packing she’d taken Magnum’s picture out of the drawer and left Richard’s photo behind. She’d felt terrible about it ever since. And she had no idea why she’d done it.

Or maybe, just maybe, she did, she thought as she touched the small picture with the worn edges. Because for the past year whenever she had nightmares of her life as a spy, of death and killing, violence and of her lungs slowly filling with water, it hadn’t been Richard’s picture she told it to. It had been Magnum’s.

It was an old spy trick a shrink had taught her. Can’t talk to a person? Talk to a picture of someone you’d want to share it with.

Even though she’d never told Magnum about any of her nightmares in real life, if she’d ever tell anyone, it would be him. So it wasn’t so strange, talking to his picture. 

Besides, he was her best friend. Made sense she’d think of Magnum when she needed someone to share her nightmares with. He was the person she saw every day. Who she shared small and big things with. Shootings, shaved ice and sneaking around trying to take pictures of cheating spouses. Even when they spent a whole day disagreeing - and they sometimes did - she still spent almost all of her time with him.

She sat down on the bed and realized why she was _still_ looking at his picture.

_She missed him._

It had been 2 days. 48 hours out of 4,380 hours.

No. She couldn't miss him. Not yet. But she did. And even though she'd gone much longer without speaking or seeing him in the past, this hurt. So much. Because she knew it was for so long. She was _here_ and he was _there_ and there was no guarantee she'd get to go back.

She wondered, suddenly, if he missed her. Probably not. He hadn’t texted other than a thumbs up after she wrote him she’d landed in London. He had TC, Rick, everyone. He had work, he had rowing and swimming and surfing, he even had Zeus and Apollo.

Maybe when he realized he needed her to “laptop” he’d miss her. Maybe when he was sitting in stakeouts for hours with no one to talk to, he’d miss her. When he made a reference he suspected she wouldn't have gotten, he'd miss her.

Just a little bit.

That was all she asked for. A little bit.

Half of what she felt. Not even that. Maybe just 1%. That seemed enough because she didn't want him to feel anywhere near as bad as she did. But he wouldn't be. He wasn't the one who didn't know if he could ever go back to the place that was his _home_ , to the people that were. 

Her phone vibrated. It was a text from Magnum. **_I'm lost_** it said.

 _So am I_ , she thought stupidly before texting **_Where are you? Where are you going?_**

 _ **That's the problem. I don't know. Turn on find-my-friends**_, the reply came.

She did and began zooming out to get from her location to Hawaii. But stopped.

Because the dot that was Magnum was not in Hawaii - it was in London.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I do this to myself? Now I have this whole story-line for this! But I'm not going to write anymore here (or I'm going to try not to) until Marriage of Inconvenience is done! Urg, I can't have anymore WIP.

“Magnum,” she finally asked as they sat down in the coffee shop. “What are you doing here?”

He’d expected this when she met him by the bus stop, staring at him like he was some sort of crazy person. Maybe he was. He had just flown 20 hours because… well, because Juliet Higgins.

“I’m here for a visit,” he said with a grin, as this was true. In a sense. “You see they pretty much give anyone who wants a six-month tourism visa. I figured that’s perfect.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, it’s going to take you six months to get your visa thing right,” he said, “So if figure I’ll keep you company until then. You can show me your favorite haunts, maybe we can go to Ibiza for a week. I always wanted to go to Ibiza.” 

“Magnum. You can’t work or do anything on a tourism visa,” she, always the practical one, pointed out. 

But at least she was pointing this fact out rather than the well, fact that he’d just decided to travel halfway around the world on little more than a whim and then declared he was staying for six months. Good thing because other than he missed her and well, family didn’t abandon family, he had no good reason.

“It’ll be fine. What are they going to do? Deport me?” She gave him a dark look. “Too soon?”

“I’m just...surprised you’re here.”

“You shouldn’t be,” he said, feeling bad because he thought he’d made it pretty clear he was there for her. He was her partner. “Family sticks together, right?”

“But Rick and TC are your brothers,” she said. “By leaving them to come here aren’t you actually going against that.”

“You're our family too,” he said, reaching out to put his hand over her’s on the table. He hadn’t meant to, it just sort of happened instinctively. She didn’t pull her hand away, but pointedly made sure not to look at it. “And you going back here, alone, that’s not right. We all felt that. So TC and Rick are going to watch each other’s backs and you and I, we’ll do the same.”

She thought about it for a moment then smiled a tentative smile. “I guess that does make a small amount of sense.”

The fact that she’d just agreed, smiled, rather than argued, told him all he needed to know. She’d been miserable at the prospect of spending the next six months in the UK but trying to put on a brave face. Then again, hadn't he already known that? Hadn't the thought of her alone and depressed in England been part of why it had been so torturous to spend just 24 hours without her. Hadn't that been as big a factor as how much he'd missed her, how impossibly long six months seemed even though logic told him half a year wasn't that long. How empty Robin's Nest had been without her. How he'd had no one to talk to, no one to tease, no one who he could communicate wordlessly with, no one to argue with, no one to try to make smile or just share the satisfaction of a job well done with. 

“Where are we going to stay though? The place I rented isn’t exactly spacious.“

“Don’t worry,” he said, pulling a set of keys out of his pocket. “Robin just bought a condo in London last month. I offered to be his majordomo.”

“You can’t be majordomo of an apartment.”

He dangled the keys. “I can! And if you ask nicely I’ll let you be my security consultant!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Robin saves the day in a different, less direct way. Also fun role reversal...


End file.
